Boxing Day

It used to be a family tradition that in the morning of Boxing Day we would go and visit my dad’s boss for a pre-lunch glass of something nice and a few nibbles. He wasn’t just a boss, he was a friend, and at work in the laboratory, my dad made some of the decisive discoveries which contributed to the work on elastin. So we went round to visit at about twelve as friends.

We all used to live in Cambridge and my sister and I were friends with their two younger children so we would collect a glass of something, orange squash maybe and scoot off to play with whatever games they’d received the day before. The parents and maybe some others would gather downstairs with drinks and chat, and it was a very pleasant post-Christmas occasion.

The lab split and half went to Norwich, the other half to near Bristol and that’s why we moved and ended up in Weston-super-Mare. My dad’s boss/friend was still his boss/friend, so the Boxing Day tradition continued, now in Cheddar where they lived. Now we were old enough to have a different drink, and usually it was champagne, and among the delicious nibbles were some amazing cheese balls – which I think were mainly beaten egg white and grated Parmesan… deep-fried to become the irresistible little mouthfuls of yum. As the years went by, the drinks became some champagne cocktails – I have never had them anywhere else, and wonder if I would still find them as exciting and sophisticated… I probably would!

Now our Boxing Day is a pleasant every from Christmas Day – we went out to Dunster this afternoon, but I always think of those splendid visits to our friends. Maybe next year we should have cheese balls and champagne cocktails!

My featured image is in Cheddar… this pretty and peaceful stream became a raging torrent during the floods of 1968, where it ran through the back door and out of the front door of our friends lovely house!

I remember the 1968 flooding you speak of. David Etherington and I drove to the Partridge house in Cheddar to see whether they were safe. Sam shouted to us from their upstairs windows saying they were OK for food etc. and didn’t need assistance. Some MRI staff members had narrow escapes I think.

Happy New Year Lois to you and the family. Thank you for your excellent blog.

Happy New Year to you too, Don! Yes, the millstream came in the Partridge’s back door and out of the front, leaving the newly laid parquet flooring floating about. It really was a frightening experience for some people.